So I mentioned in my 2016 review post that I would be ending the year in Ghana with Irin_ng.

This is the third time I will be travelling/exploring a place with fellow Nigerian bloggers.

The travel plan between my friends and I was to visit Cape Coast in December, but in between my cancelling (Plan was to visit Sout Africa in Decemeber), I advised my friends to get in touch with Irin_ng and go on the trip along with them. I decided to join the trip last minute due to the cancellation of my South Africa travel plans. Our major reason for going on the trip was Cape Coast since we already explored a bit Accra in August (here and here).

Asides from Sandra and Tayo, I met for the first time every other person on the bus.

The journey from Nigeria was fun and almost smooth until we got to Aflao and everything went south from there due to no fault of the organizer. I watched with amazement how a perfect plan crumbled and how someone can stupidly disrupt the world of another without any feeling of remorse.

I learnt a hard lesson on how unreliable transport operators can be. The importance of a written contract when requesting or giving service to another party.

Thank God for the awesome people I traveled with. I couldn't imagine travelling with an irrational or impatient person. The gang was so cool and understanding, we understood that the situation we found ourselves was beyond the control of the Damola.

Sadly we couldn't make it to Cape Coast due to the numerous issues that came up.

So even though the trip did not go as planned, we did our best to enjoy every moment.

The Gang

Sights

Food So this time around I get to experiment with food.
I got to eat Ghana Jollof and Banku and even Eba.

This is one reason I always look forward to the Hilla Condji border

Hot Pepper (actually raw pepper)

Banku and Okro Soup

Ghana Jollof, Tayo is the only who believes their Jollof is better than ours

The first time I heard about blogging was in 2005 at an AIESEC Conference in Abeokuta, we were all encouraged to document our AIESEC Experience and I got to read a lot of blogs after that.

It is amazing how this blog has evolved.

From documenting my AIESEC experience to my final year as an undergraduate to the bus diary and finally the identity of a travel blog following my adventures in India and Germany and back to Nigeria.

A couple of days back I read some of my old posts and I am reminded of my growth, of the past, of the joys and the sadness that has been my life in the last 10 years.

I remember opening an anonymous blog and having to abandon it when I was slowly unconsciously revealing myself on it. This blog was abandoned then. There are days I wished this blog was anonymous or that I never shut down the anonymous blog.

I am never one for lists, I never write them out. I might have them mentally stored but they are never written until this post.

I pretty much have my destination plans for January and February sorted out. But for the rest of the year, there is no fixed plan. The plan is to visit at least one destination a month which will be mostly domestic trips. Account cannot come and be red all the name of travelling.

Below destinations are calling my name in 2017 and I hope to heed their call in the year.

Johannesburg, South Africa
This is happening in January. Visa and ticket is sorted, so this is no longer a dream but a reality waiting to happen.

Abeokuta, Nigeria
Abeokuta has always been home and I cannot believe I have not returned to the town in 3 years 10 months. I want to visit Olumo rock again, the first time I visited was on the 1st of January 2009 with my family members. I hear the elevator no longer works but I always preferred the hike.

Cape Coast, Ghana
My major reason for going on the Irin Ajo trip to Ghana was to visit Cape Coast but due to unforeseeable circumstance we were not able to make the trip. I hope to visit time to do this.

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
This is one West African country I want to tick off the bucket list. Also I have a quite a number of Ivorian friends from India days that I would love to meet again.